Photos and Pumpkins

 

I haven't spent much time getting to know my new camera, but I am still amazed at the difference in photo quality that the new, better technology and a real zoom lens makes! 

 

Sweet Banty Hen

(Miss East Ferris Township 2011)

Evil Killer Hen

(RunnerUp Miss EFT 2011)

Georgie

KaKocha's Nose

(yes, alpaca noses are soft!)

Not-Quite-Cured Pumpkins

 

My pumpkins did not quite ripen on the vine.  We've had heavy frosts lately which has killed the vines, so I picked most of them today.  There were a few already starting to rot in the garden.  From what I've googled, I should be able to 'cure' these ones so that they turn orange.  Regardless, if they don't get squishy, someone can make jack-o-lanterns from them even if they are green.

 

It's very cold and very wet this weekend.  I saw a few flakes of snow today.  Tomorrow, we have wood being delivered.  It's definitely time for toques and boots and hot apple toffee lattes!



Winter Has Arrived

Winter has arrived this week.  Lots of snow followed by a very cold -32C Saturday morning.

I commonly get asked how the alpacas like the winter.  My standard answer is that they much prefer a cold January to a humid, hot August.  Alpacas have a lot of dense fibre on their body, so if they are in good condition, and can get out of the wind, they do fine.  Most have a fibre that is about as long as my fingers on their body.  If I stick my fingers into their side, their body is very warm.

If they kush (lay on their knees) in the straw of the lean-to, they cover any of their bare parts (which is generally just their groin area.   This is Luxor in his man-cave. He is 15 years old and he is in an area with Vivaldi, the youngest male (pictured above).  I keep these gentle guys separate from the breeding males who can intimidate them.  Their man-cave is just a little lean-to built for two so that they can get out of the wind and precipitation.   They still have barn access but they like to be out here during the day.

They drink a lot more water in the winter, because the hay is dry.  Our waterers are heated, so they don't freeze.  You'll notice sparse trails in the snow in the picture of the girls area.  Alpacas really slow down in the winter weather with trails from the hay feeder to the lean-to to the barn and then to the outside waterer.  Alpacas don't like walking off the trails...even if you are coming on the trail carrying a 45 lb bale of hay for them, they will hesitate to make way for you to get by.

The sky is absolutely gorgeous bright and blue on a cold January day.  I'm thankful that my teenager loves to snowblow and plow.  It took her and the hubby several hours on Saturday.   It was a day that I was thankful that I had 5 load of laundry that needed doing...

We are making progress on the circular sock knitting machine!  I use the "Royal WE", because hubby is a gadget guy which has really come in handy while we try to figure this out.

There is a steep learning curve and lots of figuring out.

And I've figured out what acrylic yarn is useful for....(practice tubes).  It's pretty though, isn't it?

Tulips and Toenails

Spring is so close, I can almost taste it.  I keep walking into work and saying that.  People keep looking at me funny.  Like Monday, when it was -32C in the morning.  However, it was practically balmy by the afternoon.  Trust me, it's starting!

I love beautiful flowers blooming in my house at this time of year!  Plants don't do well with my neglect, but a pot of forced bulbs give almost instant gratification.  Such a lift in February.

Sunday was pedicure day at the barn.  Often people assume that alpacas have cloven hooves, like goats.  In fact, alpacas and llamas have soft padded soles on their feet and have two toenails.  The toenails grow, especially in North American soft pastures.  So, every 6-8 weeks, they need to be trimmed.

(I apologize for the poor picture, but this farmer tends to lose help if she spends a lot of time fiddling with the camera instead of getting the job done.)

When we first started caring for alpacas back in 2002, the nail trimming deal was a cause of great stress and it took us a lot of planning...even though we started with 5 alpacas.  Now, we can do 18 alpacas in just over an hour with minimal energy.  Partly because we know what we are doing, partly because our animals have all been here long enough to trust us and partly because my daughter has grown into a strong, tall farm helper.

Some farms use a chute.  We don't.  Toe-nail trimming here is usually a two person job...one to hold the alpaca at the front, the other to lift each leg and do the trimming (that's usually hubby).  If there is a third person to stand at the opposite side of the alpaca to keep them from leaning, if needed, that's a bonus.  With alpacas, it's all about balance and control, if they can't balance or resist the amount of control (either too much or too little) being applied by the humans, then they rebel.  Alpacas have very strong legs and necks, are great at twisting, rolling and bucking.  Working with any animal, things just work better if the animal is at ease and cooperating.  And with upset alpacas, there is usually stinky spit flying...so cooperation is key (sometimes a shower cap helps, too.)

Now, the other side of the story...we have one big, bad female named Jimena who has a nasty attitude and really disgusting spittle when she's upset.  And she screams...like a "Friday the 13th" movie soundtrack.  She's a lot better now than when we bought her 5 years ago, but we still leave her for a day when we are feeling particularly adventurous.  She's number 19 in line and left for another day.



This a Berry Cake.  Ingredients include 2 cups of blueberries and 2 cups of raspberries from my freezer.  The wild raspberries were from the bumper crop that I picked around our summer trailer site.  Yummy! 

See how this baking/cooking thing turns into a monster.  Now, I have a litre of buttermilk that I bought for this recipe...minus the 3/4 cup required for this recipe.  I thought the cat might like a bit of it, but it offended him. 

So now...I need to find a recipe for buttermilk and eggs.



Thanks for stopping by.

Arguments - Alpaca Style

Are you fed up of winter?  Feeling a bit of cabin fever?  It's caught on at the barn, too.  This is the scene of the morning 'hissy-fit' between Carmel and Striker.  No spitting, just posturing....kind of a warning.  Not sure if there was some deep hurt between the two of them or Carmel didn't want Striker getting out the door to look at the ladies before he did.



 Alpaca disagreements usually go like this...
1) "You are in my space and I'm warning you"....(see picture above, head tilts, ears back, chin up, possibly some gurgling).
2) "Didn't get the hint?" (Carmel will spit some wet pellets at Striker)
3) "Okay, that's it...you are really pissing me off" (Carmel will be horking up big green gobs of regurgitated hay onto Striker's fine white fleece...I find males aim for the face, while females aim in the air and let it fall).

Females will stop fighting at this point....Alpaca males can take it further...
4) (no words here because it's just pure testosterone now)...neck wrestling...running and butting chests...chasing each other around the pasture screeching as if someone is being murdered.  When they are out of breath, they'll come back huffing and puffing, lips hanging down and drooling because even they don't like the taste of angrily regurgitated cud.   Sometimes one will have a bit of the other guys fibre stuck in between his bottom teeth.  These all out competitions are all to have the prime fenceline spot in order to win the hearts of the ladies...but apparently they haven't figured out that standing there with your lip hanging down, drooling green spittle and your buddies butt-hair stuck in your teeth doesn't make you a prime candidate for date-night.

Here's a picture of Lily and her adoptive mom, Aurelia this week.  You might remember that we struggled to bottle-feed Lily, when her birth-mom wouldn't feed her.  It was touch and go until Aurelia stepped in.  She's never had a cria, but somehow started lactating just enough to save Lily.  At six months, Lily is 59 lbs and loves to eat.  Compare that to Ginger beside her, who is 3 days younger but whose mom Pepita has an abundance of milk.  Ginger is 85 lbs.

Isn't Lily pretty?

This is a picture of the little public library where I work part-time.  It looks quiet because I took the picture in the morning before I switched on the Open sign.  See how the sun comes onto the table from the big picture window? 

This is a very comforting place to be...sitting at the sun-warmed table surrounded by books.  There is one morning a week when I open the library.  That day, I try go to work a bit before opening time, so I can sit in peace with my coffee.  It's a good place to think.

 

Top Ten Reasons for Owning (Loving) Alpacas - Chicken Guardians

Well, I did mention that these reasons wouldn't be in order of importance.  This is my third entry in the Top Ten. 
If you've been reading my blog, you know that I keep chickens for eggs, fly-control and entertainment.  We started with five, then the next year had ten, and currently have more than I want to admit.

Our chickens are free-range.  They have a nice chicken house and coop within our front alpaca pasture.  During the spring, summer and fall, the chickens are free to roam where they want always returning to their coop at night. The usually stay within the fenced pastures.  They have a lovely little life and provide a great source of entertainment as we watch them from our kitchen table.


We never had any trouble with predators for the first fourteen months that we kept chickens.  I was surprised, as I had heard many stories from other farmers about raccoons, foxes, weasels, large predatory birds, etc. taking their hens.

We learned our lesson one day.  We had been keeping two of the older male alpacas in the front pasture over the spring and into summer.  I decided to move the boys back into the main male pasture area, to allow the front pasture grass to renew itself.  Three days later, as usual when I rose from my bed, I glanced out my window to check that the farmyard was still as it should be.  Even without my glasses, I could recognize the shape of a large fox carrying off one of my hens in its mouth.  To make a short story, the fox had made off with 4 hens that night.  I realized that the front pasture had not been empty at any other time that we had chickens.

We put alpacas back in that pasture that day.  The fox never came back and we haven't lost a chicken in the last sixteen months (touch wood!).  My neighbours have.  Case closed!

Easy Summer Living

My schedule has been varied a bit over the last 2 weeks, so it seems almost like a holiday.

I had a booth both at the farmers' market in Rosseau and in North Bay on the August long weekend.

The young cria, Lily, started refusing the bottle from us. I guess after tasting the real stuff from her adoptive alpaca mom, the kid replacer just didn't cut it. She's also eating grass now. We need to keep an eye on her weight and make sure she keeps gaining.

Without the regular bottle feeding schedule, we've been able to spend some more time out at the lake. We still have to run home to look after the animals at least twice a day. Still, it seems like a holiday to be swimming, relaxing in the shade with a good book, visiting with family, fishing, etc.

We had a good rain for most of today. Tonight, I went out to take some nice shots of the green fields and perhaps some alpaca pictures.

It's hard to sneak up on the alpacas with a camera. Either they come up to put their noses into the lens, or more often than not, you end up taking a lot of pictures of alpaca butts as they turn and move away.


I was able to take a picture of one back pasture before the girls noticed me and figured they should run in to get some pellets.


We often have deer in our back pastures, sometimes even grazing alongside our alpacas. I counted six there tonight, although I couldn't get them all in one picture.

Do you remember Mr. Lonely?
Uhmm...pretty sure it's a Miss. Isn't she pretty? I think we will call her Miss Lovely from now on.
She's not so lonely anymore. Aren't they getting big?


I've been doing a lot of hand dyeing, both yarn and rovings.

Here's my 3 ply sock yarn in "Feet on Fire" colourway.
and "In The Navy" colourway.
This coming weekend, Aug 14th & 15th, I will have a booth at The Artist's Garden on Hwy 654 in Callander, Ontario. Check out the link. 22 artists and artisans show their wares and demonstrate their craft. I'll be hand spinning....alpaca, of course!

Thanks for stopping in to read my blog. It makes my day when I see that someone has left a comment.

Smokey the Barn Cat

Meet Smokey the Barn Cat.


Our property is divided between the 1 acre that the house sits on and the 89 acre farm by a creek. Our dogs stay on the house side of the creek. Smokey (usually) stays on his farm side. Every morning and every evening, Smokey waits for his people to come visit him. He does keep a good eye out for the dogs. Smokey is a great barn cat. He never strays far and will follow us out around the pastures like a faithful friend. His former home was a university frat-house...I think he likes it here much better. He has a cat-door into a heated room in the barn. He gets wet and dry food, flea protection and vaccinations. He's in top form. He even has a girlfriend next door who visits but doesn't want to move in.
Smokey knows that the dogs are getting old and it's only a matter of time before he makes the move from the barn to the house to spend his retirement.

Look like a photo from a National Geographic article on some poor drought ravaged nation?
Well, sadly, this is one of the alpacas dust bath areas in the pasture. At the end of March, this should be a puddle. Yikes, it's dry this year!

Oh, the excitement spring brings! Here are my female alpacas in the front pasture...all on guard and sounding the alarm calls! What could it be?
Curious, I donned my boots and sweater and headed over to their side of the bridge.
Bravely, with camera in hand, I went over to the fence-line. I couldn't see anything but boy, the girls were upset and staring towards my neighbour's field.
So I headed down the fence-line, toward the brush area, to get a better look. Maybe a deer, a coyote, a bear?
The alpacas all made a quick start and made a dash toward the barn.
For that brief second, I thought "Hmmmm....perhaps I should have brought something other than a camera." (I've had those thoughts a lot over the years...you think I'd learn!)

Then, I saw my neighbour Ed, dressed in a black snowsuit, heading out of his old metal outbuilding...probably getting his landscaping tools out for the spring.

I should have known. Last week, the girls were very upset because my westerly neighbour parked her van behind her garage, instead of front as usual. This kept them excited for over an hour.

Another exciting time on the farm!


Another egg picture! Friday, I'll be decorating eggs with my daughter. Have a safe and enjoyable Easter weekend.